The invention relates to motors having an internal combustion engine with a recoil starter, and more particularly to automatic orientation of the pull-handle.
Motors having internal combustion engines with recoil starters are known. A pull-rope extends through an opening in a recoil starter housing and is connected to a pull-handle having an at-rest translational position seated against the opening, and is pullable away therefrom for starting the engine, followed by recoil return thereof to the at-rest translational position. In various applications, including some marine outboard motors, it may be desirable to provide automatic keyed orientation of the pull-handle at the end of the rope upon recoil return so that the pull-handle is out of the way of other components. For example, in some outboard motor applications, the top cowl can only be removed when the recoil starter pull-handle is in a horizontal orientation. In this instance, the user must re-orient the handle, if needed, to a horizontal position every time he/she removes the top cowl. In other applications, the appearance of the outboard motor is considered improved when the pull-handle returns and remains in the same horizontal orientation. In other applications, and responsive to customer preference, starting the outboard motor is more convenient when the pull-handle is consistently oriented in the same angular position.
The present invention provides a simple and effective solution satisfying the above noted criteria.